I’m going to digress from the topic of reading for a moment. Have you been wondering why so many children seem to be affected by autism-spectrum difficulties? I have. Here’s some interesting news from the M.I.N.D. Institute at Davis, California. The M.I.N.D. Institute has been searching for clues to autism’s increase. Although the criteria for diagnosing autism have broadened and children are being diagnosed at an earlier age, these factors don’t explain even half of the huge increases in California cases.

The Institute reports,

“The incidence of autism by age 5 in California has increased from slightly over 6 in 10,000 children born in 1990 to more than 42 in 10,000 for children born in 2001.”

This is an estimated 600-700% increase! Less than one-tenth of the increase can be attributed to inclusion of milder cases, and only 24% of the increase can be attributed to earlier age of diagnosis. Another 120% is possibly attributable to changes in diagnostic criteria. So, really only about one third of the increase can be explained by those factors

So what’s left? The environment! The Institute suggests that a careful look at environmental exposures is warranted, especially for their possible affect on genetically susceptible children. They are doing some fascinating studies that I will try to comment on in future blogs.